WWEP's Classroom Supplies program distributes truckloads of supplies and materials to many students located in rural areas.
Notebooks by the thousands, cases and cases of pencils, hundreds of fitted uniforms and dozens of backpacks for the children to carry it all are handed out to impoverished students and families who would normally not be able to afford the materials themselves.
Teams of volunteers works for weeks to record, order, process and deliver enormous shipments of supplies to the students at the beginning of each school term.
Some villages are so remote that the deliveries from WWEP are virtually all they receive from the outside world.
Toothbrushes and soaps are sent to needy families to promote good health.
For schools within the urban areas, basic materials are more readily available and our programs will often concentrate on artistic and cultural supplies such as musical instruments, art supplies or expenses for local field trips to cultural events.
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Many small and under-funded rural schools run by the government operated on a minuscule budget. The families of students cannot afford even the most basic materials for classes.
Many public schools within the city of Kathmandu have sufficient materials available for classes, mainly due to private donations by citizens and organizations outside of Nepal. WWEP continues to support individual students and the class as a whole with contributions from our donors.
In touring schools throughout Nepal. we sometimes find schools that are very well funded from private donations and we will often opt to devote our efforts to schools that are more financially challenged.
WWEP enlists volunteer assistants from small villages to help with the distribution of supplies and uniforms to the children in primary and secondary school.
Thousands of blank notebooks are printed up by our partners in Kathmandu for distribution at multiple rural schools in remote villages. Pencils and book bags are also distributed to needy families who cannot afford the basics.
At a tiny village in the remote north region of Nepal, the entire population of the village came out in appreciation of WWEP's continued support of the small primary school. Photo: Passang Dhondup Lama
Some of our schools benefit from an enhanced program for medical health and dental hygiene.
Most schools have art programs of various types, including drawing, painting, music, dance and cultural history. WWEP provides funding for art supplies to schools that do have the necessary funding for programs as large as the students would like.
This young child in class 1 can barely lift the supplies that he is provided on the first day of school. WWEP supports numerous remote schools that are often outside the reach of traditional funding from the government. Without our contributions, these students would have nothing in class for reading and writing.